By Dan Levine and Poornima Gupta
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov 26 (Reuters) - Hewlett-Packard Co was
sued on Monday by an investor who claimed the company knew
statements about its Autonomy acquisition were misleading and
led the stock to fall, according to lawyers representing the
plaintiff.
The proposed class action lawsuit was filed in a San
Francisco federal court.
HP dropped a bombshell last Tuesday with an $8.8 billion
write-down on its acquisition of British software firm Autonomy,
saying the company inflated sales with improper accounting.
Autonomy co-founder Mike Lynch has denied any wrongdoing.
HP bought Autonomy for a hefty $11.1 billion last year. HP
has said it alerted regulators on both sides of the Atlantic.
The lawsuit, one of the first to be filed by investors on
the Autonomy mess, said HP hid the fact it gained control of
Autonomy based on financial statements that could not be relied
upon. It also said that HP had not revealed to investors that it
tried to undo the Autonomy agreement before it closed because of
the accounting issues.
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